Indiana homeowner charged in shooting death of house cleaner who showed up at wrong address
Courtesy: CBS
An Indiana homeowner is being charged with a felony after he shot and killed a house cleaner on his front porch earlier this month. Police said the woman and her husband had mistakenly shown up to the property in Whitestown, about 20 miles outside of Indianapolis, thinking it was a different address. Neither appeared to enter the residence, according to police.
The homeowner, Curt Andersen, faces one count of voluntary manslaughter, Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood announced at a news conference Monday. Eastwood said his office decided to bring the charge, a Level 2 felony, after determining that shooting did not meet the requirements for protection under Indiana’s “stand your ground law” — a self-defense statute that allows individuals to use deadly force in situations where they believe doing so is necessary in order to prevent their own serious bodily injury.
“It is vitally important for the citizens of Boone County to understand that our decision today in no way should be interpreted as a challenge to Indiana ‘stand your ground’ law, or a person’s right to self-defense,” said Eastwood. “Based upon the particular evidence and circumstances of this case, we have determined that Curt Andersen’s actions do not fall within the legal protections provided by the Indiana ‘stand your ground’ law.”
Eastwood identified the woman as Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velazquez. She and her husband, Mauricio Velazquez, had gone to the home as part of a cleaning crew, CBS affiliate WTTV reported. They share four children, according to the station.
An attorney for the family, Alex J. Limontes, said they were encouraged to see charges filed in connection with her “tragic and preventable death.”
“This is an important step towards accountability, truth and justice. And it’s a step that Maria’s family deserves. On the morning Maria was killed, she was simply arriving to clean a home. She was doing her job, supporting her family and contributing to her community,” Limones said at a news conference.
Before 7 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 5, officers with the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department responded to a report of a possible break-in at a subdivision in the area, the department said in a statement. When they arrived at the scene, the officers found Perez deceased on the front porch of the residence after suffering a gunshot wound. Velazquez was not harmed.
Velazquez later told WTTV that the gunshot came from inside the home and had been fired through the door. A bullet hole could be seen in the door in the shooting’s aftermath, the station reported.
“They should’ve called the police first instead of just shooting out of nowhere like that,” Velazquez told WTTV through an interpreter.
Whitestown police said the department was “committed to conducting a thorough and impartial investigation” into what happened and would be “interviewing all individuals involved” as crime scene investigators were “meticulously collecting and analyzing all relevant evidence to understand the full scope of what occurred.”
The department had said it was working closely with the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office as the investigation got underway.
“We understand that incidents like this can cause concern and speculation,” said Whitestown police. “We respectfully ask the public to place their trust in the investigative process and refrain from sharing unverified information. These cases are often complex and require time to fully understand. Misinformation can be harmful to those involved and to the integrity of the investigation.”
Indiana is one of 31 states with a “stand your ground law,” but experts say that the circumstances surrounding the implementation have to be reasonable. In 2023, a Black teenager in Missouri was shot and killed when he rang the wrong doorbell; the shooter later pleaded guilty. That same year in upstate New York, a man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for shooting and killing a woman who inadvertently pulled into his rural driveway.
